The Zealous and Impartial PROTESTANT SHEWING Some great but less heeded DANGERS OF POPERY In Order to Thorough and Effectual Security against it In a LETTER To a Member of PARLIAMENT LONDON Printed by M. C. for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Pauls Churchyard 1681. The Zealous and Impartial PROTESTANT SIR WE have discourst a great deal of the Popish Plot and the commonly acknowledg'd dangers of Popery On that side we are justly sensible of our Perils and have not much need of more Warnings to look about us But all the danger of Popery doth not lie one way it hath other Methods to advance its Interests besides Killing and Burning and of some of those I doubt we are not sufficiently aware Like the percht Phesant we look so intently at the danger that makes the loud Noise that we little heed the Enemy behind the Bush that is ready to shoot us off I remember I said when I last waited on you that there are ways in which Popery is silently promoted I shall now represent some of them to you with Honest and Impartial plainness as becomes one who is an hearty enemy to Popery in all the Steps and Methods of it And THe First occasion of our farther Danger that I shall mention is the present Diminution not to say Extinction of Reverence to the Authority of the Church of England and the Protestant Reformation by Law establish't Popery was not thrown out here by Rebellion Sedition or popular Tumults but this Church was in a regular way Reformed by the deliberate and grave Counsels of our Rulers These our Reformers purged out the Roman Corruptions and in their steads settled the Ancient Primitive Christianity which was establish'd by all the Authority of the Kingdom both Ecclesiastical and Civil and this Establishment in Doctrine Discipline and Worship is that by which we know the Church of England This our pious Reformers Kings and Parliaments by the advice of Learned Grave Divines Bishops and others setled and bound upon us by most solemn Sanctions this they fixt as the National Profession to stand so in all Times and not to serve only for a present Expedient as some talk in their Dream for their Reformation they founded upon the Holy Scripture and upon the Doctrine and Practice of the First and Purest Times of the Primitive Fathers and Councils Christ himself being the Corner-Stone And the Grounds being unalterable the thing setled on them ought in the main to be so and must have been so intended by those Excellent men who so well knew what they did and the Reasons of their so doing Here was our Religion now purged from Popery a Religion that in the whole Constitution of it hath the greatest antipathy to that corrupt Profession this is our old Protestantism that which was persecuted by Papists with Fire and Faggot that which divers of the Reformers themselves sealed with their Blood in opposition to Popish Idolatries and Superstitions This was the Way the Religion of the happy Elizabeth-Days which are yet so Celebrated so glorious among Protestants and that finally which was stood to contended for to the Death by the Royal Martyr King Charles the First Here then is the standing Bulwark against Popery this is Primitive Christianity restored our Anti-papistry The Protestantism we understand and can defend and the Establishment and Maintenance of this is our security against the Popish Depravations When we would destroy this some thing we must set up the Church of England is that which our Protestant Law-givers have erected have by so many Laws confirmed This now is twisted with our Monarchy and the whole frame of our Civil Government so that the overthrow of one will be the destruction of both If this Church should be overturned which God forbid confusion in the State must follow and then Anarchy and cutting Throats and 't is most likely Popery at last For when this Constitution is ruined we must to new Modelling And where shall we rest Every Pretence every Way hath as much right as any other of the Competitors and then we fall into a Scufle and endless Disorders and who but the Roman Church will get by that If this Fortification should be dismantled before we could get another in the place of it Popery in all likelihood would be with us Now this Bulwark we are many of us throwing down and taking away the Ordinance and Artillery Or rather we have done it in great part and have made the Church weak and defenceless The Authority the Coercive Power in effect is gone And what doth Vice or Humour or Faction care for Words Papers Arguments Excommunication is the penalty and we know how little that is made to signifie so that the Church is obeyed by as many as please and as long as those please Such as will not at all or but in this and that take their own course and there is but little remedy This is the plain sad truth Laws we have still but the multitude of Offenders with other things make all in a manner unpracticable The Authority of the Church and the Reverence is lost and gone the People dissolv'd and at loose They fear not they care not for Ecclesiastical Laws or Penalties They will follow their own Ways and the Teachers they have heap'd up to themselves and the few that are left with us are divers of them ready to be gone too as soon as they are punish'd or take Pet and the Governors and Ministers of the Church do not humour them So that the strength of the Church is broken little of the Fortress is left standing besides the dead Walls and even these many would have down too Down with it down with it even to the ground is the Cry This is a sad part of the state of our Church and this its weak almost ruined Condition hath no doubt been the great temptation to many to desert it Every Constitution every Government ought to have Authority and Power or it is Precarious and will be in a little time Contemptible And ours having been made so by the loss of its strength and due force no wonder if it falls into disesteem even among divers that formerly revered it No wonder if these being so prejudiced betake themselves to a Church which hath Authority hath Power They have been brought up perhaps under a fense of the necessity of Ecclesiastical Government and Authority of the Obedience and Reverence that is due to the Church and its Constitutions and of the Mischiefs Schisms and Confusions that arise from the want of these And then observing that our Church is so weakned so disabled so despised and affronted they bid adieu to it and betake themselves to that Corrupt Idolatrous Church that yet hath Authority hath Rule over its Members This Sir I dare say hath been one of the chief occasions of the late increase of Popery and Papists and the revolt of so many from the Reformed Communion For one and
fierce men that would drive things to Extreams I am sure you can get nothing by Confusions and Dissettlements Pray God disappoint those that would have Distractions because they think they can get by them I remember walking with you last Summer in your Park you were pleas'd to ask me What way there was to fecure the Church of England under a Popish Successor though he should be Mild and Gentle and not bent upon the enforcing of his Religion One chief ground of the Question was That the King bestows the Bishopricks and many other Ecclesiastical Preferments and it cannot well as you reasonably offer'd be supposed but that He will in that case bestow them on such as either are Popishly affected or not very averse to or zealous against that Religion Or if the King should do otherwise and bestow them upon the most Worthy Sincere thorough Protestants yet the People would entertain Jealousies of them and never think them such which would destroy their Authority and Reverence and occasion the dispersion of the People yet further into Corners To this I said That I did not pretend to offer publick expedients in such great and weighty matters but I thought that if by any means of Justice and safety to the Rights of the Crown such as consent in that case would be Canonical Elections should during such time be granted to each particular Church and the King should please not to determine them in their choice to a Person by his Conge de' stire as now but leave them to their liberty of Choosing as they thought fit as in some former times they did each Dean and Chapter to choose the Bishop of the Diocess and their own Members that this might be reasonable Security And if the Bishop the Dean and Chapter the Clergy of each Diocess or distinct Deanry or the Vniversities should have the right given them of presenting to the King's Livings during such time of a Popish Successor this way I humbly thought might in all likelihood secure us against those Dangers For the Clergy of the Church of England are of all men most concern'd in point of Interest as well as Principles and profession to oppose Popery and as far as lawfully they may all advances towards it This one would think should need no proof but it seems it doth among some and I shall clear that Matter by and by And they would no doubt take care from time to time to Elect such as were most fast to our Protestant Constitution most eminent in their Lives and Learning and most able and ready to oppose Popish Corruptions and so the Church of England might stand if direct and profest Violence were not offer'd to it To this purpose I then said I think on the occasion of his Majesty's gracious offers for Protestant Security under a Successor of the other Religion I do not know what opportunities may be offer'd again the next Session but if any such be and this particularly might be obtain'd I hope it will be accepted and me-thinks some such thing should be desired But Sir I am no Projector I speak all this with all imaginable submission to the wiser Judgments of my Superiours CHAP. II. II. ANother occasion I note of the increase and danger of Popery is our ill treatment of our own Protestant Clergie those of the Church of England Their Predecessors were they who first formed our Reformation upon the soberest and best grounds of Opposition to the Roman Church as I have shewn and by their Blood sealed our Protestant Establishments And the Successors of those blessed men Bishops and other Episcopal Divines have ever since been the Scourges of Popery who by their learned and excellent Writings have confuted exposed triumph'd over the numerous Errors of that Church These have been the grand Champions of the Protestant Cause that have fought our Battels against the stoutest and most daring Enemies with glorious success such were Bishop Jewel Bishop Morton Bishop Andrews Arch-Bishop Laud Bishop Hall Bishop Davenant Arch-Bishop Usher Arch-Bishop Bramhal Bishop Taylor Bishop Cozens Dr. Hammond Mr. Chillingworth Mr. Mead Dean Stillingfleet Dean Tillotson Dean Lloyd Dr. Henry More Dr. Brevint these and innumerable others have strenuously and plainly refuted bafled and disproved the Popish Depravations And every where men of the same sort in all parts of England are very busie both by Books and Sermons to render those Corruptions odious and detestable as they deserve Particularly we have an eminent aggregate Instance in the Reverend Episcopal Clergie of the City of London How many learned substantial convictive Sermons have they preach'd against the Popish Doctrines and Practice since our late Fears and Dangers I believe there have not been such deliver'd in that City against those Superstitions since the Foundation of it More sound accomplish'd judicious Preachers it certainly never had never any that understood the Roman Falsities better never any that were more resolv'd or more active Enemies to them The Divines the Ancient and the Modern of the Church of England principally have by their Preaching and their Writings so inform'd season'd and spirited the People against Popery as we find at this Day from them they have their chief Grounds from them their courage of Opposition 'T is true some few others have written something Mr. Baxter and Mr. Pool have labour'd worthily Dr. Owen hath said somewhat to Fiat Lux and there are some Sermons of the Presbyterians extant Morning Lectures against Popery These are the most the chief of their Performances I ever heard of Indeed the People of the Dissenting Party talk commonly as if the Non-conformist Ministers had written the most and best Books against Popery and had this way shewn themselves more zealous Adversaries to it than the Conformable Clergy have done But they do but shew their ignorance in this as they do in other Matters of the like nature And the ground of their Mistake is this That they take all the Books which their Ministers have written against the Church of England to be written against Popery They have indeed written more than a Horseload of Books of this sort but what they have written against the Church of Rome a Boy may carry at his Back I would not disparage any Protestant Writings against the Papists nor appear partial to the Episcopal Divines Let the World compare and judg of which side have been the most and most considerable Opposites to the Popish cause Let any the most prejudiced against the Church of England read both sorts and then judg who have been the Original Authors and who have only used the others Reading Learning and Reasonings I would leave the Matter with the most partial to Dissenters to determine when they have read when they have consider'd There is no man certainly of understanding or experience of the World but must grant that the chief the most successful Antagonists of Popery have been the Clergy of the Church of England These the Papists have
to give any legal security to the publick that they are not Papists these are Protestants the Protestants But those that profess the Primitive Christianity reform'd by our Martyrs from Roman errors and corruptions and establish't by our Laws Those that have publickly bound themselves to this truely Protestant Religion by Subscriptions Oaths Sacraments Tests all the ways that the wisdom of the nation can find out for security these are Papists Popishly affected Papists in Masquerade Sir I speak nothing of this to expose vilify or affront any but out of tender regard to the honour of the Protestant name which must needs needs by such courses I pray God preserve us from the ill consequences of proceedings that are so partial and unjust and that Popery in the event have not the advantages by them that they so fairly offer it I hope you do not understand me as if I intended that all were Atheists Debauches c. that seem now to be over-run with an extravagant zeal and violence and that wrongfully charge the Church of England No I know what allowances are to be made for mens mistakes who are abused by the cunning deceits of crafty designs Many honest and Religious persons are so mislead at this time and those I pity and pray for But that there are many wicked men of the sorts I have described studying and endeavouring the ruine both of Church and State you cannot but apprehend and those it is that I humbly caution you against And if ever Popery have any considerable advantage in this Nation it will be by their means The mistakes of furious Zeal against Popery may effect that which all the direct Zeal in the world for it would never be able to bring about 'T is sobriety that must settle and secure us SIR I Have thus written to you with honest plainness and freedom such as becomes an English-man and a sincere Member of the Church of England To the same purpose I have spoken to others as I have had occasion with no other design but of serving the Government and Protestant Religion by Law Establish'd to which by the Grace of God while I live I will adhere But for this innocent sort of discourse I have suffer'd severely from the fierce Zeal I have described and have been Stigmatized by it as a Papist a denier of the Plot and an Enemy to Parliaments I have reason to think that you have heard these injurious things of me and because you have not seen me of late and do not know how I may be changed I shall trouble you with a short account of my self in reference to these Charges For Popery I always was as hearty an Enemy to it as any man that lives and have declared that Emnity by such zealous frequent and publick oppositions as would expose me to the greatest rigours and persecutions of that Church should it which God forbid ever regain Authority and power in this Nation Besides that I must certainly unavoidably suffer the loss of all under it I say I have publickly solemnly earnestly declared against Popery ever since I was capable of examining and knowing it I have represented the Idolatries Superstitions Heresies Immoralities Novelties Absurdities Nonsense and all the Antichristianism of that Church with as much earnestness and plainness as any man in my station hath or can do I have done it always on all occasions and particularly since the late Plot and often since and our dangers require this Zeal from us Such a Papist Sir I am One that never thought of that Religion but to detest it And this inclination and resolution by the help of God I shall carry to my Grave As to the Plot I have reason'd about Circumstances and spoken of the folly and infatuation of the Contrivance and management by the Papists I have laught at many Coffee-house Stories and Terrors for which there was no evidence I have been sensible of other Plots and Designs built on the occasion of the Popish one and have spoken of those with concernment as in these Papers I have done But as here all along I suppose the grand Popish Plot and own there was such a one so in all Conversations I have acknowledg'd the Plot and see too much cause to believe the late Designs and endeavours of Papists to work our Ruine I know enough of the malignity of their Principles and the vileness of their Practices of this sort to dispose me to receive the Evidence As to the last charge I heartily reverence the Constitution and respect Parliaments as much as any Friend to the Government can do I know their usefulness their necessity and the veneration that is due to the Representatives of a great Nation and of our own But after all this Body how great how venerable soever owns it self to be Fallible and as all men take the liberty to blame what they dislike in publick proceedings and even in theirs so have I sometimes taken notice of such Mistakes and Miscarriages as the violence and designs of ill men have led that Assembly into Notwithstanding which I can truly say I honour Sober Religious and Loyal Parliaments as much as any man And I hope this when it meets will prove it self to be such to the confusion of all Popish and Fanatical Designs and the establishment of our Religion Peace and a lasting Happiness This is my constant Prayer to Almighty God for Them and to this every true English-man will say Amen I have been a little tedious and perhaps impertinent in this Apology but I hope you will pardon it as an effect of the great desire I have to preserve my self in your good opinion which I hope I shall never forfeit by deserving such Characters as the fierceness of some would fasten on me But always continue as I am a sincere lover of the true Protestant Religion an affectionate Friend and Subject to the Government in Church and State as now establish'd And particularly to your self Sir An humble and faithful Servant THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE First occasion of our further danger of Popery considered viz. the weakning of the Church of England The Constitutions of this Church are our old Protestantism This Church our Bulwork against Popery which unavoidably will follow the destruction of it The present sad state of the Church of England described Its diminution the great occasion of the late growth of Popery The way to keep that out is to establish something nothing but the Church of England can with reason or safety be set up not Presbytery not Independency not any new Model The strengthning the Church of England earnestly prest The unwearied designs and endeavours of the Kings and Kingdomes Fanatick enemies against it at this time particularly and always in our dangers An humble offer for security of Protestant Religion under a Popish Prince if such should ever be CHAP. II. The Second occasion of our danger viz. our ill treatment of our Protestant Clergy those